The Toronto Weekend to End Breast Cancer is on in September and we’re starting to see the commercials for it now. I love breasts. I don’t love cancer. So I’m definitley for the cause.
What I’m less enthusiastic about is the guilt-inducing promotion. This year’s campaign to get people to register for the city-wide walk uses the tagline “Breast cancer is hard. Walking isn’t.”
Maybe I’m overly sensetive, but I find this a little dramatic.
As far as disease organizations go, breast cancer has got to be among the most successful for fundraising. People are all over it. Pink ribbons are everywhere–on bumper stickers, sponges, pens, football fields, tupperware, t-shirts… you get the idea. They receive loads of support every year. I don’t think we need to be emotionally manipulated to get involved.
If the commercial was for anything else (i.e. homelessness or starving children), I like to believe I would be less irked. It’s not that breast cancer is less serious than other causes. But the organization has already done so well getting financial backing and media exposure that tactics like implying no one cares makes them sound ungrateful.
It’s getting warmer, hot even. It’s supposed to exceed 30°C in Toronto today—a nice, but slightly uncomfortable temperature if you’re anywhere but at the beach.
It’s one of those days when I’m glad I live in a developed country where air conditioning is not only available, but expected. There. I said it. I am a sinner among you. However environmentally terrorizing, air conditioning is a luxury that I happily take advantage of.
Now that my dirty laundry has aired, I need to say something important. There are limits. I repeat: there are limits. Air conditioning was created to make people comfortable, not cold. As I sit in my office—a.k.a. the refrigerator—my jacket is on. There is a literal breeze in here, except it’s constant and hardly refreshing.
Image from sangrea.net
I know my boss occasionally reads this blog…so I will give him a shout out along with a plee to fire the person who sits next to (and controls) the thermostat—a man who claims his long sleeve collared shirts make it unbearably hot in the summer. It’s a fair statement, except that it’s now colder in here than when it was outside in the winter. I think said man is secretly sadistic and likes to see me suffer—a fireable offense.
If he is, in fact, telling the truth about office dress codes, I wonder if we’ll start to see businesses adapt their expectations to suit the actual weather and not the artificial environment we create at the expense of Mother Nature. If mandated clothing is what is keeping businesses from reducing their GHG emissions, I think it’s fair to re-examine what is appropriate office attire.
Be advised, I am not arguing for mesh t-shirts or running shorts—then no one would be able to concentrate—all I’m saying is I don’t want to unpack my wool sweaters for June.
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As a smaller-busted female, I take this personally. Just sayin.
If the name “swine flu” offends some Muslims and Jews and their sensetivities to pork, how do you think this gelato ad will weather in Catholic communities?
Call me crazy, but I don’t think people are going to be too keen on this baby–and not only because it’s not that clever. This is the sort of thing that agencies should just see coming.
I can’t imagine a bunch of copywriters in a boardroom thinking that this will slide under the table. Granted, controversy garners attention to the product, but you might as well post a billboard that says: “SEX! Now that I got your attention, buy this gelato”. Nyuk nyuk nyuk.
Sometimes advertisers let me down. These people are supposed to be society’s creatives. I think of big-shot agencies that take in stacks of portfolios every week, and then I see ads like this, and I am convinced that getting in to commercial advertising must be all about who you know.
I expect this in a brainstorming session, sure, but I also expect everyone else in the room to promptly belittle the idea and then move on.
Anyway religous fanatics, have at it. They’re probably counting on your shock and the power of your subsequent word of mouth promotion. Guh.
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Image from blog.globalgiving.com
At one point, I was putting it off. But I found that when I was in the mood to blog, I had no inspiration. So I waited. But the longer I held off re-entering the blogosphere, the more pressure I felt to write something really juicy.
I didn’t want my comeback—which is exactly what it is when you haven’t blogged in over three weeks—to be reminiscent of Britney’s 2007 performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.
But that’s exactly what this blog entry is: a trainwreck. You have to start somewhere, right?
Interestingly, in my absence, my stats have remained in the range of 200 to 500 viewers per day. That would be impressive if people were coming to my blog to read my stuff, which isn’t the case. Hundreds of people get to my blog through Google Images. I have the number-one image for ice cream (which isn’t even that nice) and the seventh most popular image for cow. See for yourself.
Stay tuned. I’ve broken the seal now, so it’s just a matter of time.
